‘Founders Factory Africa’ Raises $114M To Grow Tech Ecosystem

Founders Factory Africa (FFA), an early-stage South Africa-based investment firm, has raised $114 million “to scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem.”

The accelerator led by Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson will further strengthen FFA’s ability to provide seed funding and equity capital to promising tech startups.

According to AfroTech, Roo Rogers and Alina Truhina co-founded the investment firm. Bongani Sithole serves as CEO.

FFA sets itself apart from other investment firms through a different structure that allows for long-term commitment to the companies they help to fund. “Typical fund structures mean that when investors raise a fund, they’ll have to deliver on it, close it, and start a new one,” Sithole told TechCrunch. 

“How we’ve structured FFA and our partnerships with our LPs is one of a continuous relationship,” Sithole added. “And the reason for that is twofold. The integration of corporates and startups is very critical to the African continent. So, from that perspective, that gives us two things. One is access to capital to further our mission, and second, our startups can continue to integrate and leverage the assets held by corporates in the African continent.”

The recent financial windfall will also help FFA create a more robust system in-house, as it plans to hire new talent and continue building its IP.

“As we figure out how to deploy this capital, catalytic in this context also means you can invest $1, and the startup can deliver $2 worth of value,” Truhina said. “That’s what we’re looking to do, seeking ways to help these founders access different types of capital to provide double, triple, and quadruple that value.”

Since FFA’s inception in 2018, the firm has backed and helped scale 55 startups across 11 African countries. The startups are broken across three programs and receive anywhere from $40,000 to $250,000 cash in exchange for varying equity stakes.